As the frozen and frustrated Villa Park faithful trudged home last night, it didn’t need the gloating Tottenham taunts to state the obvious. But it’s true.

Spurs did only have ten men and Villa were not very good – and that pretty much tells the entire story.

The two managers might as well have cancelled their post-match press conferences because little further comment was needed.

When Harry Redknapp inflicted the first defeat of Gerard Houllier’s claret and blue reign with a 2-1 win after a Rafael Van Der Vaart double and a Marc Albrighton consolation in October, Villa could take pride in defeat.

But, when they were undone by the same scoreline with the same scorers last night, ‘deja vu’ was not the French phrase Houllier needed. It was ‘sacre bleu’.

In fairness, Villa did eventually bombard Heurelho Gomes with shots – but there was an inevitability they would still lose.

It was Tottenham’s possession football which prevailed – despite referee Martin Atkinson’s attempts to even things up with dodgy decisions against both sides.

Jermain Defoe’s controversial sending off midway through the first half changed the game – bizarrely, in Tottenham’s favour.

Rather than putting them at a disadvantage, Defoe’s dismissal for a 27th-minute elbow on James Collins seemed to inspire Spurs and handicap Houllier’s hosts.

Tottenham stroked the ball around calmly, even to chants of olé from the travelling fans, before patiently picking their moments to hit Villa on the break. In contrast, the home side lacked movement and a late pitch invader produced their best timed run of the match.

While Spurs celebrated the space-finding, goalscoring return of Van Der Vaart, Villa welcomed back Fabian Delph for his first action since early April after cruciate ligament surgery.

Houllier chose to include Delph ahead of fit-again Nigel Reo-Coker and Stiliyan Petrov, who were on the bench, alongside Jonathan Hogg in a new-look central midfield. Villa missed injured Ashley Young and without playmaker Barry Bannan, who was also among the subs, were devoid of inspiration in the centre.

As for John Carew, Stephen Ireland, Richard Dunne and Habib Beye, as the Boxing Day sales began the out-of-favour four were again out of sight rather than on display in the shop window.

What Delph and Hogg lacked in craft they more than made up for in graft but it wasn’t enough. When Emile Heskey hobbled off with an ankle injury towards the end of the opening period, Villa missed him much more than Spurs missed Defoe.

Atkinson had no hesitation in reaching for the red card when the diminutive striker led with his arm as he jumped with Collins – although the man in a muddle won’t be receiving cards from either manager next Christmas given what had gone before.

Houllier and Redknapp were rightfully aggrieved to each be on the wrong end of debatable calls before the opening goal and the sending off. Gomes’ ninth-minute foul which hurt Heskey wasn’t conclusive at first, but replays and the Brazilian’s guilty look towards the officials proved it should have been a penalty with the striker beating the goalkeeper to Marc Albrighton’s cross.

Redknapp was infuriated when Atkinson disallowed Younes Kaboul’s hooked effort on 16 minutes after Villa switched off from a deep free-kick, thinking it had crossed the byline, only for Alan Hutton to seemingly keep it alive.

Spurs soon forgot that apparent injustice when they opened the scoring on 24 minutes. Luka Modric’s sublime crossfield pass to the right played in Hutton whose low ball was steered in expertly by Van Der Vaart at the near post with Collins and Stephen Warnock losing their footing and Carlos Cuellar unable to cover quickly enough.

Their second goal on 67 minutes completely ruined the claret and blues’ Christmas when Gareth Bale broke down the right, skipped past Cuellar and Delph and found Aaron Lennon, whose pass to Van Der Vaart was sublimely sidefooted past Brad Friedel.

Villa’s veteran goalkeeper had earlier raced from his line to deny Defoe in the opening stages, kept out Kaboul’s free-kick, and finger-tipped a Wilson Palacios shot around the post. It might have been different had Albrighton scored in the first minute after going close, while there were early off target headers from Heskey and Gabby Agbonlahor, who also twice tested Gomes from a rapid breakaway, while substitute Nathan Delfouneso threatened at the end of the first half fans and start of the second. Cuellar twice nodded errantly from Stewart Downing crosses, while Eric Lichaj fired wide of the right-hand post on two occasions and Agbonlahor had another couple of close efforts.

If anyone deserved a goal it was Albrighton, who prodded and probed throughout, and it came on 82 minutes when his inswinging left-wing cross swirled straight in with Collins deceiving Gomes.

But Redknapp’s unbeaten record against Villa stretched to nine games and four-and-a-half years – and Robert Pires’ heated touchline spat with their public enemy No.1 was a rare moment for the home fans to get excited about.